‘I think it will be death’: Ontario family says they face deadly consequences if deported to Jamaica

A family that has built a life in Canada is facing an impending deportation order to Jamaica. Kamil Karamali on their fears.

Olympic hopeful Tamarri Lindo believes not only are his dreams of one day representing Canada in the hurdling competition in jeopardy — now that he and his family are facing deportation — but that he and his father face almost certain death if they are forced to return to Jamaica in the coming weeks.

“Honestly, I think it will be death,” said 21-year-old Lindo in an interview with CTV News on Saturday from his family’s Oakville, Ont., apartment. “It sucks that I have to say it goes to that extreme, but I definitely think it would potentially be death. Because if they ever find out that we are there, it will be a lot of consequences.”

The Lindo family came to Canada in 2019, when Lindo’s father, George, filed a refugee claim for political asylum. He alleges he had been the victim of a series of violent attacks and threats related to his political activity with Jamaica’s opposition party — including three assassination attempts.

Although Tamarri was 15 at the time, he recalls multiple threats made against his family.

“It got so bad that at times they would come out to the house looking for us,” Lindo said. “The most traumatic experience I’ve ever had was when I was in the car with all my siblings, going to school, and they were threatening us to stay home or they were going to shoot up the car — with all of us in it, me and my little baby siblings.”

Since arriving in Canada, Lindo has become one of the country’s top-ranked hurdlers at the collegiate level. He now competes for York University and ranked as the No. 1 indoor hurdler in Canada in the under-23 category.

Now, all of those accomplishments — and his Olympic hopes — could be in jeopardy. The family’s immigration lawyer says removal proceedings have begun, and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has called them in for an interview.

“It’s very scary right now,” said Aidan Simardone, the family’s lawyer. “Sept. 22 is the first interview. After that, CBSA can often start a deportation pretty quickly — maybe even a week after that. It’s going to require everything from the public to make sure that this doesn’t go forward and this doesn’t happen.”

“There’s a reason why I’m now taking it to the public,” he added.

“Because I, as a lawyer, have done everything I can up to this point, and now I need everyone’s help.”

‘It’s complete nonsense’

The Lindo family — Tamarri, his father George, his stepmother Jilandre, and their daughters Tameah and Tamarli — faced deportation last year. But according to Simardone, following public pressure, the government granted the family a one-year extension.

“My hope was during that time, with the different appeals I was doing and the applications we were working on, there would be some sort of more long-term solution, or at the very least, that some of the applications they had previously submitted (would be processed),” he said, referencing a humanitarian and compassionate grounds application that has been pending.

“My hope is we’d get a decision on that before the one-year status ended,” said Simardone. " What we have is, you know, they run out of status, Tamarri goes to the Canada Summer games, gets gold and silver -- and then comes back with a letter from the Canadian government saying the premature deportation process has started. That’s where we are right now."

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) told CTV News that “due to privacy legislation, we cannot comment on specific cases.”

However, last year, the IRCC told CTV News that it had denied the family’s claims to stay in Canada after finding that “the applicants have provided little documentary evidence to demonstrate that they are at risk of harm or persecution in Jamaica as a result of (Lindo’s) political activity,’ according to a senior immigration officer identified as ‘C4095.’

“Crime, including murder, is widespread throughout Jamaica - any risk they face is not personalized, it’s one shared generally by all persons living in Jamaica,” the IRCC said.

Simardone pushed back strongly on that assessment.

“It’s complete nonsense,” he said. “We’re not talking about generalized violence in the community. We’re talking about someone who is being specifically targeted because of their political work they are doing. George was a member of the opposition. He was helping out the opposition. He was targeted for that reason. There is much compelling evidence for that.”

Simardone says a humanitarian and compassionate application has been processing for over 2 years, but unfortunately this does not stop deportations from occurring.

Tamarri fears what comes next for him and his family, after investing everything into his future as a hurdler.

“When I came up here, I felt the first bit of safety I’ve ever felt in a very long time,” said Tamarri. “Honestly, I don’t know what I would do. I don’t even know where I’d start. I would just be completely broken.”